Kathy’s Home & Garden Tips – Lawn and Garden Do’s and Don’ts for Hot Weather

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Do’s and Don’ts for Lawn and Garden During Hot Spells

You can get through summer hot spells with a few tricks and tips! Here are the do’s:

  1. Do pay special attention to your container plants. They will need daily watering! It’s also ok to fertilize these.
  2. Water, but do not overwater. Always water an inch at a time, both on the lawn and in the garden. You need to increase the frequency of your waterings, but not the amount of water.
  3. Continue to mow, but raise the level. You will be mowing more often this way, but keeping the grass longer will help it stay looking good and healthy.
  4. Keep weeding. It seems that no what matter the temperature, these still thrive. Keeping them to a minimum will keep them from further stressing already stressed plants.
  5. Watch out for garden pests, like spider mites. Blast them off with a good spray from the hose. Again, these can really overtake already stressed plants.

Here are a few things to stay away from!

  1. Stop fertilizing both the garden and lawn. In high heat, it can burn plants. Many plants will get through the heat by slowing their own growth. As we said before, it’s ok to fertilize container plants.
  2. Don’t do any planting or transplanting. Planting and transplanting are stressful to plants to begin with; adding heat to the equation is simply unnecessary and could result in plants that never reach their full potential.
  3. Avoid pruning trees and shrubs. Pruned plants and trees will encourage new growth which is likely to wither in high heat conditions.

Do any lawn and garden chores early in the morning before the heat of the day sets in. This is better for both garden and gardener. Besides more frequent mowing, watering, and weeding, let things be. Many plants fight stress by going dormant and will come right back with rain and cooler temperatures. If you have certain perennials that seem especially stressed, it might be a good idea to move these to a more shady spot in the fall.

KATHLEEN WEAVER-ZECH & DEAN’S TEAM CHICAGO